Jetstream

Narrator:
Suiting up for the F-18 the first time out is like gearing up for the Super Bowl: it makes everything else they flown seem like training wheels.

Narrator:
[about the F-18] This jet was never meant to land... on land.

Narrator:
Without power, the F-18 flies like a manhole cover.

Narrator:
[Shamus's Flight Control System acts up] A bad FCS could mean loosing control over nearly everything except the ejection seat.

Narrator:
[On callsigns] Maybe in Hollywood, you get cool names like "Maverick" and "Iceman", but not here.

Narrator:
The relationship between pilots and their ground crew is like a marriage... in 1955. The pilots head off to work to bring home the bacon, while the ground crew keeps house, takes care of the kids. They're the unsung heroes, but every pilot knows his life is in their hands.

Narrator:
[about a student who lets his airspeed drop during dogfight training] At speeds this slow, the Hornet has all the aerodynamic grace of a Coke machine.

Narrator:
They say in combat a righteous dogfight is a dirty dogfight, and if you're not cheatin', you're not tryin'.

Narrator:
[On flying low] The catch is : down here, you're never more than 2 seconds from your very own crash site.

Narrator:
[the instructors are fearful before the low altitude flying mission] It's no coincidence that Shamus, who is known to get fidgety at the best of times, has been paired with an instructor who, where he any calmer, would require life support.

Narrator:
Whoever named this place "Cold Lake" had a firm grasp of the obvious. Once this place puts on its winter coat, it keeps it on for five... long... months.

Lt. Shamus "Carney" Allen:
Why fly slow when you can fly fast ?

Capt. Leath "Lothar" Greenwood:
The rule on callsigns is if you like it, then great, you get to keep it; if you don't like it, then great, you get to keep it.

Maj. John "Spanky" Argue:
[On formation flying] So what do you thing the number one objective is ? Don't hit the other guy !

Maj. John "Spanky" Argue:
[after Mike Lewis' first formation flight] Hey, see any parts missin' of the airplane ? That's a good sign.

Maj. Mike "Flayling" Ayling:
[to Tim "Nail'N" Coffin after he failed a dogfight training mission] Let's just say your last name is appropriate.

Capt. Steve "Kramer" Valko:
Fightin' in a Hornet is kinda like a knife fight in an alley: you'll run in there, try to kill the opponent, and you'll be out of there before anyone else knows what is going on.

Lt. Dave "Tickler" McLeod:
You go to a bar in Edmonton, like "ho yeah, what do you do ?" You can't say you're a fighter pilot, 'cause half the other guys in the bar are trying to pretend they have cool jobs like being a fighter pilot.

Maj. Mike "Flayling" Ayling:
[to a student who almost ran into his airplane while flying in close formation] Any closer and if I was your lead, I would've punched ya.

Maj. John "Spanky" Argue:
[about a student who's having difficulties] He's not in the boat, he's waterskying behind the boat.

Narrator:
[while the visual is snow plows working on the runways] 'round about now, you'd have a hard time convincing anybody that good weather is a key reason Cold Lake was chosen as a training ground.

Maj. Mike "Flayling" Ayling:
[On Riel doing a superior mission] Normally at this stage of the course, you might see on a trip like that, maybe out of every 3 or 4 courses, one of them might pull off something like that. I was speechless when the instructor told me. He told me : "She did as good ou probably better than a wingman on squadron.

Narrator:
[the students are about to do a simulated combat scenario] But evidently, the weather didn't get the memo : a snow storm has swept in and the temperature hits 30 bellow.

Instructor:
[Riel just made her first successful contact for air to air refuel] Once it's in, it's not over.

Capt. Riel "Guns" Erickson:
You need to tell a lot of guys that.

Maj. Mike "Flayling" Ayling:
[about Riel's progress after almost failing at some point] I can honestly say in 1000 hours instruction on the airplane, I have never seen a student recover like that.

Narrator:
[On droping a Mk-82 bomb] It's got no internal guidance system, so dropping one of these babies is like playing lawn darts... with a hand grenade.

Narrator:
[One at a time, the students drop their bomb] And then, there's Shamus. He's lining all up perfectly. And for Spanky, riding in the back seat, it's better than sex.

Maj. John "Spanky" Argue:
That's nice... that's nice... that's nice... that's nice... Oh yes, this is good... this is good... this is good... this is good... this is nice... this is perfect.

Narrator:
Tristan Mckee was posted at 425 gun squadron in Bagotville Qu?bec. Tristan's callsign was changed to "Speedo" after a mysterious incident involving the speedbrakes on his F-18 wich triggered a parking lot full of car alarms.

Capt. Tristan "T-Bag" Mckee:
[From the extras on the DVD, someone throws a spider to Riel, and she's afraid of it] You fly a 35 million dollar death machine and you can't handle a spider !

Narrator:
[about the pilots' partying] If Friday night ends before Saturday morning, you're not doing it right.

Lt. Shamus "Carney" Allen:
[Repeated] Awesome !